Bangkok Airport

Like most of South East Asia, Bangkok's airport is over-air-conditioned, which makes it just like Hong Kong, except it has a Dunkin' Donuts. As you can tell, I'm taking every opportunity to sample the culture of Thailand.

There's also an outlet of some unidentified food chain, with a sign above it saying "This is the only restaurant in the terminal". Boast, or threat, or warning? I couldn't decide, but since if you walk round the corner there's a McDonalds, a coffee bar, a pretzel concession and something selling sandwiches, it doesn't seem like that was the most truthful claim. I suppose they could argue McDonalds wasn't really a restaurant, just somewhere that sold burgers. Is there a Thai word for chutzpah?

Other than that, the domestic terminal is a barren desert of concrete and steel, two wings radiating out from the central nexus of the The North Face shop and the dissembling food court. It's a long, dull walk down to gate A5 and the turquoise seating, and although the ceiling of the airport is a nice and swooping stretch of fabric, there's nothing really remarkable here.

How jaded am I that a massive building designed to help people fly through the air is just a bit boring, even if it does include a doughnut shop? Ah well.

It is fun to watch people here though: there are quite a few shabby white guys in suits, who look like they've spent the last decade drunk in a ditch. I wonder what they're going to Chiang Mai for? Then there are the fresh-faced, confused looking American teens, wandering around without direction or purpose. At least they haven't collapsed yet, whereas some of the old fellas look close to death.

Hmm. Maybe not so much fun after all. We went in the lounge (one of us has gold status with the airline), but that was full of very unhappy looking people and there was no beer. Perhaps that was why all the people were looking so very unhappy.